Census Results Reveal Same-Sex Marriage Surge in Canada

Statistics Canada released their report today: "The number of same-sex couples surged 32.6% between 2001 and 2006, five times the pace of opposite-sex couples (+5.9%). For the first time, the census counted same-sex married couples, reflecting the legalization of same-sex marriages for all of Canada as of July 2005. In total, the census enumerated 45,345 same-sex couples, of which 7,465, or 16.5%, were married couples. Half of all same-sex couples in Canada lived in the three largest census metropolitan areas, Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver, in 2006. Toronto accounted for 21.2% of all same-sex couples, Montréal, 18.4% and Vancouver, 10.3%. In 2006, same-sex couples represented 0.6% of all couples in Canada. This is comparable to data from New Zealand (0.7%) and Australia (0.6%). Over half (53.7%) of same-sex married spouses were men in 2006, compared with 46.3% who were women. Proportions were similar among same-sex common-law partners in both 2006 and 2001. About 9.0% of persons in same-sex couples had children aged 24 years and under living in the home in 2006. This was more common for females (16.3%) than for males (2.9%) in same-sex couples."

Said Anne Milan, a Statistics Canada senior analyst: "It's the first time that we've asked same sex marriage so it's really a benchmark number. Future census releases will allow us to compare the count and see what's happening."

Same sex marriages are increasing at a rate 5 times that of heterosexual marriages. That is rather different than occurring at a rate 5 times greater.

Posted by: a proud vancouverite | Sep 12, 2007 8:12:29 PM

I got irritated by the tone of one area of the main article, which was carried by a myriad of mainstream news outlets. It reads...
``]The census] revealed 7,465 gay and lesbian marriages. That's considerably lower than numbers reported by the now-defunct advocacy group Canadians For Equal Marriage. The group, based on its own research of municipal records, reported last November that 12,438 marriage licenses had been granted to same-sex couples since provincial courts began recognizing such unions in 2003.``

The article seems to imply that the numbers don't add up, and I assume right wing nutjobs will seize on this misinformation to suggests that the gays exaggenerate the numbers.
But the census and the advocacy group did not count the same phenomena.
The census counted the number of same sex married couples residing in Canada, while the advocacy group counted the number of licences issued within Canada during a given time period (including thousands of American tourists who have added to a bigger same`sex wedding and honeymoon industry in Canada.